Book 2: Chapter 18: Out of Time

  A healing potion crossed his lips the moment Holly appeared next to him. He knew it was Holly because her hair had fallen over her face, the loose strands brought with them an aroma that tickled his nose. It smelled like lavender and thyme, she always smelled like that. He really liked that about her.

  The jarring cracks and pops that followed the potion caused Alex to groan loudly. His voice was still hoarse, his lung still stitching itself closed under the guidance of the healing intent of the liquid.

  “Dying sometimes seems like it would be a nice change for once,” he managed to speak once his rib shifted back into place. For the most part at least.

  She placed a hand gently on his shoulder. “Stay still, let your body do it’s thing.”

  “Dude... That. Was. Awesome!” Garret loomed over him, yelling down at him. “What was that? It’s like you entered a Dragon Hero form or something.”

  “I’m not... entirely… sure… ,” he spoke between hitched breaths and rolled over onto his back to see everyone else pressed in close at this point. “New thing… a constitution ability.”

  “Constitution?” Eric asked.

  “Got it from… an item.”

  Tom-Tom snaked his way underfoot of the group until he managed to crawl his way on to of Alex’s stomach, eliciting a series of gasps and groans. He peered down at Alex with wide, snake slitted eyes. “Tom-Tom say you are Dragon-Blood-One. He say. He knew.”

  “Yeah, yeah, get.. off,” he shifted, throwing the small lizardman away with his weight. He was able to sit up at this point. Bones reset and joints back in their proper places. The cuts, bruises and sheer exhaustion was still there though.

  He looked inward, diving into his soulspace to see what had happened to the Wyrm-heart floating in the realm. Everything first appeared as it should be. The mists had returned, obscuring the edges of the soulspace and giving the illusion of infinity. The veins and threads of aether now gone. The bond he had with Obby he could still feel anchored off to his right somewhere.

  But his attention was above the remnants of his core.

  It’s different.

  The heart, once blue-purple veins, muscles and scales, beating slowly but strongly, had now diminished somewhat. It was still there, and still the same size. Beating every few seconds. There was something about it that was off to Alex though. He remembered a vibrancy to the organ, a feeling of strength and inevitability.

  Now, it was, less.

  “It needs time to regain energy.” Obby’s freaky cyclops body appeared over his shoulder, making him jump slightly.

  What do you mean?

  “Remember when you were cultivating? When it was siphoning some of your aether? It used it all. Now it needs to recharge, regain its strength. That’s what I can get from the data anyway.”

  He nodded to himself, taking in Obby’s words. It made sense to him. If the thing needed aether, it would siphon it from him during his cultivation, and then use it for… whatever it did.

  What can you see about this thing now? Do you know what it actually does now?

  The lanky figure floated out close tot he heart. One long arm reached out, slender finger-like appendages tapping along the scales and muscle. “I still can’t see much, but I can get more than I had before. Obviously, it provides a huge augmentor effect to your body. It looks like there are restrictions on when it activates though. One, you have to be critically injured. Two, you have to be fighting something stronger than you.”

  Alright, but stronger in what way? A higher strength stat? Someone at a higher Tier?

  “That I can’t figure out. It seems to… decide on its own? There a latent will attached to this thing. Not sentient, certainly not conscious, but it seems to be making the rules.”

  Fuck, that’s not good. I don’t want to be going serpent-mode randomly while sparring with someone.

  “You don’t have to worry about that for now. Not for awhile actually. It’s recovering, and still needs to replenish its energy, as I said.” Obby floated back down to hover by his shoulder. “You should get back to the real world, your meat friends are probably worried you’re brain dead.”

  “Slap him, that usually helps,” Garret said.

  “No, that might worsen a brain injury, you idiot. Obviously that has happened too many times to you already.” Allie said.

  Alex shook his head, and began standing up. “I’m fine, was just feeling around to see what happened to my body.”

  He felt a hand under his right armpit, helping him upright. He looked to find it was Peter. He flashed a smile at Alex and let go once he had his feet fully under him.

  A mental nudge brought a system screen up into his vision.

  A scowl formed on his face he read the description for the hidden quest. He swiped it away without even looking at his status screen.

  Right now, there was more to do.

  ***

  They returned at dusk, dragging bruises, blood, and the weight of victory on their backs.

  The Adept Alpha’s corpse had been left to rot in its den, a message, and a monument to their wrath as a group. What they carried back was quieter, just a tattered banner torn from its hide, blackened fur matted with dried blood. Proof of the deed, nothing more.

  Well except the beasts core, which Alex dug from its corpse himself.

  Tom-Tom carried the banner of the wolf’s flesh proudly, like a war trophy, chest puffed out as they crested the ridge.

  But the celebration died as soon as they entered the kobold camp.

  There was no cheer, no fires lit, no drums echoing their return. Just hushed voices and quick feet, kobolds moving with grim efficiency to and fro along the tunnels and above in the settlement. A few raised their heads as the humans approached and looked away just as fast.

  Allie was the first to say it. “Something’s wrong.”

  Alex nodded. His stomach had already dropped, making his mood feel as shitty as his body. He still sported a multitude of wounds even after downing a healing potion. Just as Obby had warned, they just didn’t have the oomph needed to bring his body back to peak condition.

  The sheer amount of energy his body required and the quality of his tissues meant it would require much more to heal him. It was also why Alex refused to let Allie try her wound transference spell on him. His body was just built different from her, and even different from Holly’s. He was certain her trying to use the spell on him, would kill her.

  So for now, he had to suffer through the pain.

  A younger kobold met them halfway as the team walked through the settlement’s above ground area, its eyes wide and glittering with suppressed emotion.

  “Come. Chieftain… Chieftain is fading.”

  No further words were needed. They followed the runner to the healing tent. The thick leather flap that was the tent’s front door was lifted to reveal a familiar sight, of the Chief laid out on a bed. He looked even worse since they had left yesterday to hunt the Alpha.

  The Chieftain lay on a bed of woven grass mats and piles of fabrics, his breath came in shallow, ragged gasps. The burns across his chest had spread. Aether rot spiderwebbed across one arm. One eye, once blazing with cunning, was dim and unfocused.

  Alex knelt beside him, taking his scaled hand gently in his own.

  “Hey,” he said. “We did it. The alpha’s dead.”

  The Chieftain stirred slightly. His fingers twitched against Alex’s as he held the kobold’s hand. The corner of the Chief’s mouth lifted slightly in what might’ve been interpreted as a smile. But then he winced as deep, ragged pain appeared to lance through his body. He sighed roughly and his head lolled to the side.

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  “He’s not stabilizing,” Allie whispered. “That… thing cut deeper than we thought.

  Alex nodded, looking at the kobold’s body with his aether sight ability. He could see the remains of the Alpha wolf’s aether moving through his body. It was the same dark purple energy it was siphoning from the stone glyphs in the clearing.

  Whatever the stuff was, it looked like it wasn’t actually good for the thing to cultivate it. It manage to get stronger, but it looked like it’s body was also rejecting the energy long before they had killed it.

  The same could have happened to them as they fought the thing, but they didn’t sustain heavy enough injuries for the same effect to take hold in them.

  No one besides himself at least. But he was different. No mage core existed to latch on to and attack his aether source. He also had his [Demon Asura Style], a caustic corruptible energy of its own which he was certain helped burn away and fight the aether of the wolf during their fight.

  Then their was his constitution ability. He was certain how much that affected things, but he guessed it wasn’t nothing.

  The Chieftain on the other hand, had none of those benefits. “There is just, too much corrupted aether. His body’s failing,” he said.

  Garret looked around. “Can’t we do something? Salves, spells, a ritual?”

  Allie shook her head. “We’d need a healing concoction of ridiculous potency. Something to flush out foreign aether and scrub away this corruption, heal tissue, and bind his essence all at once. I don’t—”

  “Celeste,” Alex said. Everyone turned to him. “She might have something. Or know how to make it. We brought her supplies. She’s brilliant. And stubborn enough to help even if she’s mad at me.”

  Lance was already moving, packing up food and water for the road. “Then we go. Now.”

  Eric stopped him. “You sure she’ll help us?”

  Alex stood. “She’ll help him. I’ll make damn sure of it.”

  Zach crossed his arms. “And if she can’t?”

  “Then I’ll find someone who can.”

  The squad gathered fast after that. Everyone was visibly uncertain, worried about the Chief’s fate, the unknown. They looked at him in the corner of their eyes, unsure of how to, or if they should voice their concerns. He simply ignored that and focused on the task ahead of them.

  They gathered everything up, weapons, potions ingredients, even loose coin. Whatever the cost of the healing they would need, it wasn’t going to be cheap.

  Tom-Tom patted the Chieftain’s arm gently before turning to Alex. “You saved Tom-Tom people once by killing Alpha beast. You want help saving one more… you have my teeth and fire.”

  Alex nodded once, solemn. “Let’s ride.”

  They left the kobold camp in silence, and with a sense of urgency which Alex hadn’t felt in some time.

  A life was fading, and they needed to do something about it.

  ***

  They crested the last hill just before sunset, the familiar ridgeline of Vrung’s Quarry coming into view in the fading light of whatever kind of star the people of the Aetherios System called the ball of fire that orbited the still very terrifying black void that hung in the sky. Even now, he very much chose not to think too much about it.

  Vrung’s Quarry came into view, stone walls, squat rooftops, smoke trails curling upward from forges, inns and bakeries dotted about. The town was the same as always.

  But now, as they made their approach, there a few differences from their last visits that they started to notice. First, there were no voices. The clamorous din of habitation was missing, they heard no clang of hammers, or the screams and shouts of merchants hawking various goods. No children laughing in the alleys. Just wind and a cold, unsettling quiet.

  “Something’s off,” Zach muttered.

  Alex felt it too. The air had a wrongness to it, tight and tense. Like the town itself was holding its breath and waiting. Waiting for something, what that was, he had no fucking clue.

  “Shields up. No spells yet,” Eric said. “Keep your hands visible, but be ready.”

  They moved down the hill as a group, wary. They all had their weapons stowed but fingers twitched near their hilts. Eyes flitted back and forth, always aware and vigilant. Vrung’s Quarry looked the same. But the people were missing. Curtains were drawn. Shops were all closed. A lone blue furred dog could have skittered across the cobblestones and fallen into the backrooms right in front of Alex, and he wouldn’t have been surprised at this point.

  “Where is everyone?” Allie asked.

  Cole was already scanning the rooftops. “Maybe it’s a festival day?”

  Garret snorted. “Festival of Paranoia and Suspiciously-Timed Disappearances, maybe?”

  No one laughed.

  They reached Celeste’s shop, and Alex knocked quickly, three short raps, the way she always told him not to.

  The door creaked open a crack and a single eye peered out at him. It widened immediately upon focusing on him.

  “Uh, hi,” he waved awkwardly at the doorway.

  “No!” Celeste flung the door open, his boots left the ground as she grabbed Alex by the collar, and yanked him inside. “What the hell are you doing here?!”

  “Trying to save a life,” Alex grunted, straightening his shirt. “The Chieftain’s dying. We just thought that—”

  “You thought wrong,” she snapped, turning to the others who were already flooding in behind him. “Did you not notice the ghost town out there? That’s not people hiding from goblins you idiots. That’s military lockdown.”

  “Lockdown?” What do you mean?” Eric asked.

  “Damn royals sent a regiment here. Terraxum army, captain and all. They seem to be looking for something, or someone.” She looked pointedly at Alex, very much implying to him which of those two options she personally thought the answer was.

  “Then we will be quick,” Alex said.

  “You’ll be arrested you fool,” she snapped at him. “All of you. You think you weren’t already spotted? You think they aren’t already on their way to my shop since you led them here?”

  “Uh..”

  “’Uh’, indeed child. You have ten minutes at most, and there’s nothing I can really do about this. My hands are iron-cast in this regard.” she harrumphed and moved to the cupboard where she kept her tea.

  He didn’t waste time, pulling out the large coin pouch from his bracelet and tossing it on the counter. “One hundred-twelve gold. The kobold Chieftain is wounded and his core corrupted by foreign aether. It was an Adept Tier wolf beast.” He tossed the monster’s core on the table as well. “That belonged to the wolf. Craft a cure for the kobold and get it to him. Keep the gold and whatever is left of the core after. Deal?”

  Celeste paused in the middle of making her tea. She looked at the core on the table and then back to Alex before giving a curt nod.

  With that done and settled, Alex could feel a weight slough off of his shoulders, a bit of breathing room coming back. He let out a sigh before turning to his teammates, a hand combing through his hair. They each had different expressions. Some fear, some confusion. Others, like Kate, were stern, ready to fight.

  “Well, you heard the grouchy witch, we have ten minutes.” He reached into his bracelet, searching its contents carefully. “Anything you can use now regarding resources or items, I’d do it. Once we are arrested, I doubt they will be especially ethical in their handling of our inventories.”

  Alex pulled out his skill token as he talked. The rest of the items he had were just tools or items that would take far longer than just ten minutes to use. Taking the Essence Rotation Pills, or Mistral Flow Elixer, for example, would just be waste. Even if he didn’t get them back later, he’d puke blood with remorse over using such items carelessly.

  The token on the other hand, was an item he could use right now. And it was one of the items, along with the Hallow Seraph Dust and Ashen Feather, he expected to magically be ‘lost’ during any sort of apprehension, and not be returned to him.

  Nothing I can do about it now though.

  He sent a trickle of aether into the token, mentally selecting his Glyphcraft skill. The item dissolved into dust and energy before the energy entered his body. Just as Obby had said, the item gave him a small rush of knowledge and insight on the skill.

  Progress in his Glyphcraft was rather slow as of late, so the token only brought him to 29.7% of the Novice rank. It was better than nothing as far as Alex was concerned.

  Everyone else was also going through their items. He saw Devon use a token just like the one he had used, and he could rightly guess which skill he used it on. Others quickly read through scrolls or tomes they were saving. Allie consumed some sort of sparkling blue potion. Henry was softly speaking to some kind of potted plant he had in his backpack.

  The rest appeared to simply sit down and begin cultivating frantically with various items. No doubt trying to squeeze some last minute use out of them.

  “Meatboy, pull me into your soulspace.”

  What?

  He turned around, facing away from the others as Obby’s illusion body formed itself in front of him. The one large eyeball look at him wide and panicked. It was an expression he wasn’t sure how Obby was showing him with the fucked up face he had created, but also one he was surprised the rock could even feel.

  You’re already in my soulspace. We are bonded, remember?

  The illusion pressed in closer to his face. The tiny, long tendrils of Obby’s body reach out and creepily caress his skin, combing through his hair, running along his forehead. It was bizarre how the rock’s body was a hallucination, and yet he could feel the movement at the same time. Obby’s voice hitched up an octave, apparently worried.

  “Yes, but that bond can be broken. My form, my being is still tied to my physical rock-self. That’s where my enchantments are after all. Just like when we were at the elves village, someone taking me away can break our connection for awhile. If they had lots of time, and an inclination to try getting things out of you?”

  Fuck.

  Obby was weird, annoying at times, and honestly a bit of a wild card in the ‘am I evil or not’ department. But the damn rock was also useful, very useful. Even with his current limitations, he was able to feed Alex information he just wouldn’t have otherwise. Spellswork, Glyphcraft, even in combat he was somewhat useful. He didn’t want to lose the freaky thing.

  Okay, how do I do it?

  “Hold me in your hand and place me against your aether gate at your neck. Activate your gathering technique and I will dismantle myself and hitch a ride on the aether through your gate. Then I'll enter your soul aperture and settle into your soulspace.”

  Um, that sound really dangerous Obby.

  “Oh, it is. I’m guessing there’s a 1% chance I can’t reconstruct myself properly inside your soulspace. Or of other complication occurring thanks to your… condition.”

  Alex couldn’t help but face palm. He shook the rock in his hand, hissing through his teeth as he spoke in a whisper. “I meant it sounds dangerous, for me! Not for you, you inconsiderate lump of limestone.”

  “Ah, I see. Yes, I’d say there’s a 10% chance of damage to your gates, or mental wounds forming in your psychi. Also that 5% chance of you just dying outright once I fully anchor into your soulspace is also a thing. Those are chances I’m willing to take though, for you, meatboy.”

  His hand tightened around the rock, his hand squeezing hard enough that the thought he might actually break the stone crossed his mind. “I might die?!”

  The words came out of his mouth before he could stop himself. A quick look over his shoulder gave Alex the relief of knowing that nobody was watching or listening to him. He switched back to just talking in his mind just in case though.

  I might die? No, hell no. I’d rather just lose your knowledge than die. Not happening.

  “We don’t really have a choice right now, flesh-sack.”

  Yes, we do, let me think.

  He moved through the back of the shop toward the front area, his eyes scanning high and low for anything that might help them. He couldn’t just ask Celeste for a specific item to help him solve this little rocky problem, as it would require explaining far too many things than he felt comfortable sharing.

  He frantically stalked through the shelves, searching for anything that might catch his eye. There were herbs and tools, plants, seeds, all sorts of different powers and ointments. Nothing that he could find to actually figure out a workable plan.

  But then he saw something and he paused.

  On the window sill at the front window, Celeste had a few potted plants. Nothing really special, just some stalks and herbs waiting in the sun, slowly doing their best to mature. The plants were not what grabbed his attention though, instead it was the dirt in one of the pots, more precisely it was the small rock that sat on top of the dirt.

  He rushed over, picking up the stone and held it up next to Obby’s enchanted pebble body. They were different, certainly. Obby was slightly larger, a different greyish tone, with less speckles. But, well, they both looked like rocks.

  The one things that made Obby so strange to, was that he didn’t actually have any noticeable enchantment markings. Not runes, glyphs or sigils. No glowing light or aura. At least none that could be seen by the naked eye, he saw a faint glow only because of his aether sight ability.

  Have an idea.

  The front door open slowly, carefully as Alex made sure not to hit the bell chime hanging over the top of it. He squeezed through and crouch-ran to the garden off on the left. His hands were a blurr as he frantically worked. It was only a minute later that he was done and he peered about to see if anyone was watching him.

  The town, just as before, was empty. Mostly.

  He could see quick a ways down the road, at the far end was a collection of figures walking across the cobblestones. There was no way they could see him due to the distance and from his position crouched among the plants, but he could make out enough features on them to know he needed to move back inside immediately.

  “This is a horrible plan. I didn’t realize your idiocy went this deep.”

  Shut up, it’s the best we can do. And it’ll work, trust me.

  He made it to the back of Celeste’s shop once more, finding everyone still diligently working through their items. It was nice to see them so motivated to improve so suddenly, but he knew they had all run out of time.

  “Everyone, it’s time.” he said.

  A heavy boot-fall sounded in the street outside. A smattering of armor clinking together, and the telltale thud of leather on stone. The steps approached the front door as everyone swarmed the front area.

  “Get down—!” Celeste didn’t even finish before the door blasted open.